The Twelfth Step

$1.4 billion dollars…That’s the amount the Powerball lottery is estimated to be right now at the time of me writing this. While I know I’ve written several times about these huge lottery jackpots before, I feel that because this is the first time one of them has ever made it over the billion-dollar mark that I absolutely needed to say a few things about it in my blog.

First off, just a few facts I picked up along the way of reading about this staggering amount.

1. There is at least a dozen or more countries in the world whose total net worth is less than this sum.
2. A person’s chance of getting the winning numbers is around 1 in 292 million.
3. An individual has a better chance of getting hit by lightning, become a mega movie star, a pro athlete, or being in a plane crash than winning.

Yet, most probably know these odds already but still go buy mass volumes of tickets hoping to be one of the lucky ones to win. They then dream of what they would do with their life and how things would change if they had all of that exorbitant amount to spend. But what most don’t know is how complicated their life could get having that much money.

They don’t think about the people that suddenly might come after them with lawsuits that probably never would have come to fruition without the winnings. They don’t think about all the individuals that quickly want to be their friends having all that money. They don’t think about all the people they already know and consider to be friends who start expecting them to pay more for things since they now have it to spend. And they definitely don’t think about how their ego will start vying for more control having all that cash on hand to do things like bypassing waits at restaurants, paying for someone to be with them who normally might not be, and seeking special treatment with a snap of the fingers wherever they go.

How do I know this? Well on some level I’ve lived it. While I may never have been a multi-millionaire at any point in this life so far, I have gone through an extended period where I did have enough to experience all those things and then some and I’m not proud of it. For the longest time I was ashamed of how much I let the money I once had control me, of how much I let it corrupt me, and of how much I let it consume my entire existence. But I am grateful to say that this isn’t who I am anymore and thankfully I’ve been able to forgive myself for what I allowed money to once create within me.

So while I may still buy a lottery ticket or two at the most for this landmark $1.4 billion dollar Powerball prize just to say I participated in it, I will say that if I somehow became one of those 1 in 292 million to win, much of it would be donated. Why? Because there are far more people in this world that need it than I. The majority of this world is filled with starving, thirsty, homeless, sick and ailing people, and it’s them who truly deserve this money.

The last thing I’d like to say on this mega lottery sum is really just a parting thought for anyone who ever reads this to ponder. I dream of a world where the lottery was for charity purposes only, but one where everyone still got involved in it just like they do now and playing in the hopes that if they won, they got to choose the charities it could be donated to. That’s my dream…but alas, that’s not the world we all live in today, but maybe one day it will be…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Have you ever been a passenger in a car and had an argument with the driver over something as simple as the directions to get to a destination you both were heading to? If so, was it because the driver was unwilling to listen to your guidance, even though you knew exactly how to get to where you were going?

This has happened to me more times than I can count. In fact, it happened to me just recently with my partner not too long ago when we chose to dine out for dinner up in Ann Arbor, MI. When the two of us finally decided on the Macaroni Grill, I asked if he knew how to get there. After responding with a firm yes, I watched as he began to drive totally away from the direction we needed to be going in. I immediately yelled and said he was going the wrong way, at which point he began to yell back and said he knew what he was doing. As we merged back onto the highway, both of us raising our voices at each other vying for control, I pointed to the location of the restaurant, which was now in the total opposite direction from which we were heading. My partner then apologized and said he was wrong, causing my ego to swell, but not without a price, which was a total lack of peace being felt from within.

All that yelling, control, and ego did nothing more for me than cause my body to tense up and take me out of my heart and leave me in my head. And to be honest, that’s the precise place I don’t want to be because when I am, I find I’m the farthest I can be from being an unconditionally loving and compassionate person in life.

There truly was a completely different way I could have handled this simple driving mistake. I could have just let it go. I didn’t though and instead I drew the verbal guns and prepared for battle just to prove I was right. And as you can see that didn’t end up so well for me in the end. Even worse, our dinner was only filled with a sense of awkwardness, tension, and irritability afterwards. That was a pretty steep price to pay just to be right wasn’t it?

I’m realizing through situations like this that sometimes it really is best to just let things go and let the person figure their mistakes out on their own. Often they will come back anyway and apologize for not listening, but when they do, it’s generally one that comes more from the heart and not from the head. But even better is the reality that the person who lets it go usually ends up feeling a whole lot better about themselves and keeps a sense of peace through it all.

So hopefully I will clearly remember to just let it go the next time a situation like this arises because I’d rather remain in my heart and keep that sense of peace through it all, instead of trying to win a battle where a victory is only going to pay a steep price within me in the end…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson